Love, Life, and Laura Vaughn
by TheClosetedThespian
Summary: Before Landry leaves for college football training, he and Laura spend one last night together after prom.
1. Chapter 1: One Romantic Evening

Disclaimer: Once again I own nothing related to GCB. As many of you probably know by now GCB unfortunately did not get renewed for another season, and since I'm assuming all of you like GCB or you probably wouldn't be reading this fan fiction, if you wouldn't mid taking a second just to sign the "save GCB" petition that would be amazing! Thanks so much!

Here's the link to the website: /

Life, Love, and Laura Vaughn 

The music began to dim out as the final song for the Hillside High School Prom came to an end. Laura rested her head on Landry's chest as they hugged each other closer on the dimly lit dance floor.

"Gosh I love you." Landry said into her ear as he rested his head on hers.

"I love you too." She muttered into his tux jacket.

Once the prom had ended the two of them headed into the high school parking lot and went into Landry's brand new SUV his parents had bought him as a graduation gift. He turned out of the school parking lot, and drove along back-roads blasting Brad Paisley from his iPod hook-up. Eventually the two of them made their way to a dark, abandoned hill over-looking the city.

"It's so nice out here." Laura commented as she got out of the car and walked closer to the edge of the hill.

Landry unbuckled his seatbelt and joined her outside. She looked like a fairy with her sparkling, light blue dress gently blowing in the late-night breeze. He put his arm around her bare-skin shoulder and pulled her in close.

"I can't believe it." Laura said looking up at Landry. "In a couple of weeks you'll be gone away to college and who knows what will happen to us after that."

"Hey now," Landry said taking off his tux jacket and draping it on her shoulders. "Nothing's going to change with us. I'll still be in Texas and I'll visit you every chance I get."

Laura takes his jacket off and hands it back to him before heading over to a large rock to the right if the car and sitting down.

"You say that now," She said looking out at the few distant cars speeding out of Dallas. "but once you get there you'll have classes and practice, you'll be traveling all over the country, Landry, you'll barely remember that little high school girlfriend you left back home."

Landry wanted to say something to contradict her, something that could make them both believe that everything would remain the same between them, but he couldn't. He knew as she did that after this he couldn't. He knew as well as she did that after these next couple weeks, their lives would be completely different. He would be off at summer training camp at the University of Texas, and Laura, a year younger than him, would be getting ready for her senior year of high school. He started to open his mouth but instead, just walked over to the rock and sat beside her.

"You know?" he finally said to break the long empty silence. "When I was younger, my grandpa and I used to go camping up here every chance we had during the summer. We'd set up our sleeping bags right on the ground and just stay up till the wee hours of the morning watching the stars. The summer before he died he gave me this."

Landry reached into his pant pocket to pull out a beautiful silver necklace with a diamond center. Laura's eyes widened as he dangled the gorgeous piece of jewelry in front of her.

"It was my grandma's." Landry explained admiring the necklace himself. "After she died, when we were cleaning out all of her things, I found it buried under tons of old junk items in my grandma's bedside table. My grandpa told me it was the necklace he gave her the night before he went off to fight in Vietnam. He then gave it to me saying that when I was older, and found someone truly special, to give it to her as a promise that no matter how far out lives take us, I'll always be there for her. Laura, I love you more than you can probably ever imagine, and I want to be with you forever, some way some how. We can get through this, I know we can."

Landry stood up from the rock and wrapped the necklace around Laura's soft, pale neck. Once it was fastened, Laura stood up on the rock and turned toward him and began kissing his nice, soft lips. After a while, they stopped, looking passionately into each other's eyes.

"Landry?" Laura asked still wrapped in his arms. "Do…do you want to…?" Laura gave Landry a look hoping she would understand what she meant.

"Oh…_that_. I mean…we could if…you want to."

Landry didn't know what to think. Since he was a little boy he had been brought up to think premarital sex was a sin, but here standing before him was the most beautiful, intelligent, amazing girl who loved him, and all she's asking is for him to love her that same way. How could there be anything sinful about that?

Landry nodded before unbuttoning the white buttons of his dress shirt. His heart was beating so fast it could be seen even through his thick chest muscles. Before they knew it two of them we lying undressed on the grass behind a tall, wide tree. It felt so amazing to be with each other in that way. It was something neither of them had ever experienced before, and they loved every second of it.

Once it was over, they just lied there together so close to each other, talking and kissing the rest of the night. It was perfect and neither one of them had a single regret.


	2. Chapter 2: The Morning After

The sun was beginning to rise by the time they put back on their clothes and got into the car. Once they were in Landry checked his phone that he had left in the front cup holder all night. He turned it on to find seven missed calls, all from his mom. He quickly went to the dialing screen frantically trying to come up with an excuse in his mind as to why he wasn't home as he dialed her number. He anxiously waited, one ring, two rings, three rings...

"Landry, sweetie?" he heard his mom ask

"Ya, it's me, mom" Landry said nervously glancing over at Laura, who was sitting anxiously in the seat beside him, hoping Landry had come up with a good enough answer to hide from their parents the event that _really_ took place last night. "Listen, sorry it's so late, or early...I guess. Anyway, one of the guys on the team invited us to an after prom party, but were coming home now."

"Now wait just a darn minute Landry Cockburn!" his mother snapped at him "first of all who's permission did you get to attend this party, because it certainly wasn't mine, and second of all even if you did, where was you cell phone and why are you only getting back to me now?"

"Oh shoot!" Landry faked "I sent you a text right after the prom was over, I thought you got it, but the service out here has been pretty bad, that's why I wasn't able to call or receive messages all night."

"Fine." his mother said harshly before saying a quick good-bye and hanging up the phone.

He then put his phone away, back in the cup holder and backed out of the mountain. He and Laura were laughing all the while as the zoomed on the freeway, still blasting that same Brad Paisley playlist on their way home. When the two of them made it back to Hillside, the sun had practically risen on a nice Sunday morning. Landry pulled into Laura's long, circular driveway. It was still early enough that no one in her family was awake, which was a relief since Laura hadn't exactly told her family where she was either, and she was in no mood for a parental confrontation. The two gave each other one more kiss before Laura got out of the car and gracefully walked up to her house, with the blue dress train trailing behind her. Landry watched, captivated by her every move, until she entered her home.

Once she was in, he got back in his car and drove himself across the street to his own house, hoping his own parents were too tired to lecture him, as he put his car back into their four car garage. He quietly tip-toed through the house trying to sneak into his room without his parents noticing. He ended up making it without any trouble, and began looking at the pictures on his bedside table of he and Laura. He couldn't believe what had happened, how amazing it was, and how much he'd miss her when he left. He turned himself away from the picture, put his hands together, and actually began praying.

"Dear Lord," Landry said turned to the window with his eyes closed, and head looking up into the quickly rising sun "I know I haven't exactly been the best with the whole spiritual thing lately, and especially given the fact that I sinned several times last night between the lying and the...well...sexual things, you really have no reason to help me, but Lord I love Laura Vaughn so much and I know that once I leave for school, things will be different, so if there's any way that Laura and I could be connected forever, please, please Lord, make that possible. In Jesus name, Amen."

Once he was finished, he turned back around to face the bedside table, and looked at the picture of the two of them after the Texas State Fair. It was taken right after he had won her a stuffed pink bear at the balloon dart booth. It took ten tried and $25 dollars, but it was worth it to see his baby happy. Landry closed his eyes, envisioning their future together. Married after both attending University of Texas, followed by working for the Cowboys, him the quarterback, her his gorgeous cheerleader wife, living in a nice mansion, much like his folks do, right out side the city, everything would be perfect. With that in his mind, Landry looked at the picture one last time, closed his eyes, and fell asleep dreaming even more about their hopeful future together.


	3. Chapter 3: What is it, Baby?

Weeks had past since prom and the night they spent together on that hill. School had let out, and Laura and Landry were spending as much time as they could with each other before he left in mid-June for summer training. On one particular Thursday, the last Thursday Landry had at home before he took off for Austin that following Saturday, the two of them walked together along the nice, paved park path behind the church. The sun was shining so brightly on them through the park trees. Landry couldn't help but notice the sad, uncomfortable look on Laura's face, but for the most part, ignored it assuming it was only because his departure date was fast approaching.

They walked a little farther into the park until they came across a wooden park bench, and sat down. Landry slid his dark blue backpack off his back and onto the right end of the bench. He unzipped it and handed Laura a ham sandwich and a bottle of his mom's homemade sweet tea. Landry unscrewed his thermos top and began drinking. The cooled tea felt so nice compared to the hot, muggy weather they were sitting in. Landry looked over at Laura, who was just looking down at the grass, unable to look Landry in the eyes.

"Don't worry, Laura" he said trying to make eye contact with her "I'll be home for a whole month during winter break, and I'm really only few hours away so you can visit me any time. I promise you sweetie, everything will be ok."

Her face froze. Landry could see her whole body shaking. Tears began to build up in her eyes and her face started turning bright red.

"No, Landry. Everything _won't_ be ok." she said in a low, cold voice. She took one more deep breath before saying the next part. "Landry, I'm...I'm..."

"What is it baby?"

"Don't call me that!" Laura snapped finally looking up at him.

"Ok then..." Landry said a bit more annoyed at her "Look Laura, I know that me leaving is hard and everything but it's not reason to-"

"This has nothing to do with that, Landry!"

"Alright, alright." He said trying to calm her down "Then just tell me what it is, I'm all ears, I promise." he said grabbing her soft little hand and smiling, looking right into her bright blue eyes.

"Landry, I really, really don't know how to tell you this but I'm...I'm pregnant" she said then fell into his lap and began to sob.

The words echoed through his mind as he tried to hold her in his arms. He could feel his whole body go numb. He had to be dreaming, there was no way this was happening to him, not now, not at this age. Any minute now he hoped to be woken up by his mother, yelling at him for sleeping till two, in the same bed, with his not pregnant girlfriend anxiously waiting for him across the street, but nothing. There was no escaping this nightmare.


	4. Chapter 4: That's Life

Laura began sobbing into the palms of her hands. Landry tried to hug her and comfort her, but ended up making himself feel even worse, which of course, was no help to Laura. After what seemed like hours of crying, Landry finally stuck his head up.

"I can't go to Texas." he said with his face still red and wet from the tears "I'll...I'll...I'll go to community college, work at night, get us a house of our own, we can do this,"

Laura looked up at him. Her mascara had run right off her eyelashes and turned into dry, black crooked streaks down her cheeks.

"Don't be stupid!" she said, sounding an awful lot like his mother after he asked her for a $60,000 car for his graduation present "You're going to Texas. I'm not going to let you ruin your life over something that was my idea!"

"No Laura! We're in this together!" He thought for a moment "Shoot! I leave in two days for training. That only gives us tonight or tomorrow to tell our parents our..uhh..situation." Landry waited for Laura to respond with some kind of opinion or comment, but she just sat there silently on the bench leaving Landry to think up a plan on his own. "I got it! I'll figure out a way to invite your family over for dinner tonight since tomorrows the Lourd/Cockburn family going away party, though given the news were going to tell them, who knows the fate of that event, and we can just tell them then. We're having barbecue tonight, nobody can stay mad with a pulled pork sandwich and a bottle of Jack Daniels right?" Landry asked trying to make a joke, but Laura didn't seem the least bit interested.

"No." Laura said curled up on the bench "I can't do that. You can't do that. We'll figure out another way. I could move down to Austin and get an apartment on campus, that way you could still be on the team and go to school and-"

"Then what about you?" he asked sitting next to her "Even if you did on-line school, there's no way both of us could go to a normal college, take care of a child, and still have enough money. Not to mention, if you lived there, I would need to work. I wouldn't have time to be on the team anyway."

Landry looked into Laura's sad, painful eyes. He put his arm on her belly, finding it so hard to imagine a child was growing in there. A child they both created on top of that hill that night after prom.

"Doesn't really seem like much yet." Landry commented as he took his hand off her stomach.

"Of course not." she said tapping her fingers on her belly "I'm guessing it's only a couple weeks old. It's probably the size of a pea right now."

Landry squished his fingers together trying to imagine the size. They both sat for a minute in silence. When suddenly, Landry realized something. He remembered his mom talking at dinner one night a few months ago about Alexandra's mom wanting to adopt another child. He immediately told Laura.

"It could be the best of both worlds." Landry said following his explanation to her. "The baby would go to a family we know and trust, I could still go to University of Texas, and you could have your senior year."

Laura gave him a disgusted look before speaking.

"It's not like giving up one of your autographed footballs, Landry! This is a _person_, a person that I created, a person that I will be both physically _and_ emotionally attached to for the next nine months! Maybe, I don't _want_ to just give it away to Alexandra's family!" Laura paused for a second, trying to cool herself off before saying the next thing "You know my mom had me young. Maybe I want to prove to her that I can do what she did instead of just giving up, and handing the kid off to some family."

Landry got closer to her, trying to grab her hand before she yanked it away.

"Adoption is not giving up!" He said standing up off the bench to face her

"Well to me it is!" She paused again trying to figure out a way to explain to Landry how she felt, but figured it was no use "Forget it." she said "Look why don't you just have my mom and I come over for dinner, get your parents drinking some whiskey and we can tell them then"

"Uhh, ok, but don't you think we should have a plan in order before we just spring this news on them?"

"We'll tell them we're still deciding." she said completely ignoring the bigger picture

"But what about _Texas_?"

"What about Texas?"

"Well, they're probably going to want to know if I'm still going." he explained

"That's your decision." Laura said flatly, hardly looking Landry in the eye. "If you can live with yourself off at school while your seventeen year old girlfriend sits at home pregnant, and if you're ok with having basically no control over what happens to this child, then that's your choice."

"That's not fair!"

"That's life, Landry, literally."

Landry seriously considered both options for a minute, before telling his decision to Laura. If he went away, he would be at training with all of his new teammates. They'd be like mini-rockstars traveling all over the south, and hopefully beating every other team in the league, but then there's the baby. Staying home could mean a lifetime of hardships, but at least he'd get to see his kid grow up, or help Laura through the adoption process if that's what they decide to do. Also, could he really look at himself, knowing that he abandoned his son or daughter just so he could possibly make a professional football team one day. How would his kid understand that, how could _he_ understand that? And it's not like this is his last opportunity to play football. He could try again for a team next year if they decide to give the baby up. That settled that. Landry then opened his mouth and said what hopped would be something he would not soon live to regret.

"I'll stay Laura."

Her eyes lit up as she got up to hug him

"You will?"

"Yeah. This is my baby..._our _baby" Landry had never felt so confused and terrified in his life.

Laura smiled and the two of them walked hand and hand back to their homes, not letting go until they reached their homes on either end of the street.

"I love" Landry whispered right before he headed up his driveway.

"I love you too." Laura responded before the two of them took off in either direction.


	5. Chapter 5: Food for Thought

Landry entered his home to find the strong aroma of barbecue filling the house. In the kitchen, his parents were making out in front of the hot stove that had a pan of pulled pork slowly burning on top of the back burner.

"Uh, guys!" he said running over to the stove and stirring the meat.

The two of them unlocked their lips barely noticing anything had happened.

"Hi baby!" his mother Carlene said walking towards her son to kiss him. "Oh! What on earth am I going to do when you leave us on Saturday?"

Landry gave a nervous laugh before asking to invite Laura and her mother Amanda.

"It's just," he tried to explain on the spot "Laura's my girlfriend and this is like, the last chance I'll really have to be with her since you two are forcing me to go to that stupid party tomorrow."

Landry could see his mom thinking. Laura's and his mom had never really gotten along and she certainly didn't want the two of them crashing one of the last family dinners she she would have with him before he went away. Landry's eyes got more and more hopeful and finally, Carlene reluctantly agreed.

Landry was helping set the table when he heard the loud doorbell ring. It startled him so much that he dropped the tray of hamburger buns on the table, nearly shattering the plate. His mother raced over to the door as Landry tried (and failed) to fold the napkins neatly at each place setting.

"Amanda, Amanda, sweet, free-loading Amanda"

Amanda rolled her eyes before her and Laura entered the house. Amanda was wearing a red, knee-length dress the was just tight enough for Landry to see the outline of her butt. Landry had, had a small crush on Amanda since her saw her in an ad for the Jean company Alexandra's parents own. It wasn't a big crush that he expected to form into a relationship, (especially since for a while, she's been dating his uncle) but he couldn't help but notice she was a decent looking woman. He knew she wasn't the biggest fan of him ever since both their parents found out they were dating at that abstinence seminar at church, and that any hope would be lost in about an hour when she found out he got her pregnant, but he could only control so many of his "manly desires" as he called them.

Landry and Laura exchanged glances as she walked past him into the kitchen. He could sense her fear just by looking at her trembling hands as she reached for on of the mini taquito appetizers they had set on the counter. Landry ran to join her while his parents were inconsiderately showing off their alcohol collection to Amanda.

"I've never been so scared in my life." Laura said once Landry walked over to her. "My family, your family, they're going to hate me."

She grabbed two more taquito's and gobbled them down like they were potato chips.

"No." Landry said pouring the pitcher of lemonade into a cup and handing it to her. "The thing is though, I really think my parents would feel a lot better if we chose adoption-"

"Landry just stop it." she said slamming her cup down on the counter. Her voice turned into a whisper and she said "I'm not doing adoption. That offer is off the table. Look, I know you don't understand, but being the child of a teen mom, I just feel like, if my mom could have me and give me a good life even as a teen, then it's almost like it's my responsibility to do the same with my own child."

"That's stupid." he said grabbing a handful of sour cream and onion chips from the glass bowl. "You know, Laura? Don't you think your mom would rather you give the child to a nice family like Mr. Reilly and Mrs. Caruth-Reilly, and have _you_ go off to college and _make_ something of yourself other than being a poor, unemployed, young mom?"

She grabbed her cell phone off the table.

"Landry, no. This discussion is over."

She turned on her phone and pretended to text. It took about a minute for her to realize she didn't want to fight with him. She turned off her phone, looked into his warm, blue eyes, and apologized.

"I'm sorry." she said placing her phone back on the counter "Look, we can discuss adoption or keeping it later, we have nine months for that. Tonight let's just be on the same page about telling our parents and supporting each other."

Landry nodded then kissed her. Just then, both of their parents walked in saying it was time to eat. Landry and Laura both looked at each other nervously, then headed over to the table. The one piece of good news for this dinner was the food was amazing. The table was covered with southern comfort food like pulled pork sandwiches, fried okra, corn bread, and macaroni and cheese. Everyone pulled out their chairs to sit down, and the awkward silence began.

"Kitten," Ripp finally said as he unfolded his napkin onto his lap. "If you will please lead us in prayer?"

"Of course, honey." She grabbed her husband and Amanda's hands and motioned for Landry to do the same. "Dear Lord, thank you for this wonderful meal we have before us, and for the amazing people we have here today, some more amazing than others." she glanced at Amanda "Also, thank you so much for giving us eighteen years with our darling son Landry, who in just two days, will be heading down to Austin, getting one step closer to his dream of playing for the Cowboys. In Jesus name, amen."

"Amen." everyone echoed.

"So son," Ripp began as he scooped a helping of pork onto a bun. "I gotta tell you, even this afternoon while you two were at the park, I got messages from Middle Tennessee State, Georgia, and South Carolina, all still pressing for you to reconsider your college choice. I had to call 'em all back and tell 'em you can't 'cause you're playing for Texas!" his dad finished taking a big bite of his sandwich.

"That's right!" Carlene said taking a sip of her glass filled with Jack Daniel Whiskey. "Baby, I can't even begin to tell you how proud we are. Gosh, it won't be long till he's scoring the winning touchdown against those pathetic Washington Redskin's at the Super Bowl!"

"If they even make it that far!" Ripp said laughing. "I mean, it's been what? Ten? Fifteen years now?"

His parents went on, and on about football while Laura's mom secretly texted Luke, her on-again off-again boyfriend. Landry could feel his heart beat faster and faster. He began mindlessly moving around the baked beans on his plate with his fork as he thought about what to say. Laura noticed and rubbed her left hand on his leg to calm him down. They both exchanged scared glances and Carlene immediately took notice.

"Ok, yall," she said looking at the two of them. They gave fake confused looks at her. "Don't think I haven't noticed the two of you. You've barely said a word, you've eaten nothing, and you keep looking at each other with that same nervous expression every two seconds! What's going on?"

The two of them looked at each other one more time before standing up out of their seats. Landry thought his heart would explode out of his chest. He could feel Laura's whole body shake as he put his arm around her. He looked at his parents and Ms. Vaughn, who's faces looked so scared and concerned as to what their children were about to tell them.

"Mom, Dad, Ms. Vaughn," Landry began as he took his arm off Laura and began nervously loosening his tie. "We're...Laura's...we're pregnant."


	6. Chapter 6: Unplanned

There was a dark silence throughout the room. Landry looked around at each of them, hoping for some sort of response, but no one said a thing. They all just sat there stunned, trying to process what they were just told.

"Impossible." Carlene whispered to herself. She looked up at the two of them with tears in her eyes. "You're only kidding, aren't you?" her voice became louder as she got up from her seat and looked directly at her son "Landry? Tell me this is a joke!"

He shook his head as he began to cry. He never knew that after hearing about the pregnancy himself, that there was any way to feel worse than he did in that moment at the park, but looking around the table, seeing the pain in everyones faces and knowing _he _caused it, he immediately knew this feeling was far more horrendous.

"Mom, I'm so, so sorry." her said leaning on his chair crying.

Laura, who's face was also dripping with large, hot tears, got behind her boyfriend to comfort him.

"You did good." she whispered in his ear as the two of them sobbed into the others shoulder "You're did _so_ good."

Without any warning, Ripp, who had been surprisingly silent up to this point, suddenly stood up from his chair. His face was filled with rage as he looked at the two of them hugging and crying like scared little kids.

"Enough with the crying!" he roared slamming his chair into the table. "You two have about five seconds to pull your sorry selves together and tell us all how the hellthis happened and what the two of you plan to do about it!"

They both backed away from each other and tried as hard as they could to compose themselves before Ripp had the chance to yell at them again. Laura wiped the tears off her rosey-red cheeks, cleared her throat, and looked at Ripp. She felt like a vulnerable puppy dog in front of him as he scrutinized her every movement.

"Well, Mr. Cockburn," she said in a shaky and congested voice "We haven't made anything final yet, but as of now, the plan is to keep it." Laura could see the horror on all the parents faces as she made that statement."I know what you're thinking. We're young teenagers who have so much going for us, and having a baby would affect all of that, but I could get my GED, and Landry could still go to community college, and get money by working at Walmart or something-"

She quickly found herself interrupted by Carlene, who had become more, and more furious as she listened to Laura's poorly thought out plan.

"Laura, sweetie? Given who your mother is I'm sure GEDs and Walmart are lovely little accomplishments for _your_ family especially given the less than fine establishment that your own mother works at, but in _our _family, we have certain standards for our son, and unfortunately, a minimum-wage-making teen dad doesn't exactly cut it for us and _our kind_." too terrified to say another word, Laura pulled her chair out and slumped back down next to Landry, who was too ashamed to even look his own parents in the eye at this point. "Laura? I'm not stupid. I see what you're trying to do here." Laura looked up at her, completely confused. "This whole pregnancy is just your selfish way of keeping Landry from going away to college and realizing amongst all the hot, intelligent college girls just how average and stupid you are in comparison."

Now Amanda was the one to speak up.

"How _dare_ you accuse my daughter of-"

"Amanda," Carlene interrupted, "You're opinion isn't wanted here."

"Excuse me, Carlene but I think that as her mother I have a right to-"

Carlene held her her hand up at Amanda, then turned to the kids before Amanda had the chance to respond again.

"How could you do this to us?" they were both silent, not even exchanging a single glance at each other. "Well, I guess it's settled then. Landry, in the morning you will call the university declining your acceptance, and then both of you better scramble to find jobs and a doctor real quick, cause you won't be seeing much help from us."


	7. Chapter 7: Broken Dreams

Following dinner, after Laura and her mom left, Landry dragged himself upstairs to his room before his parents had the chance to yell at him again. Even from the second floor of the house, Landry could still hear his parents in the kitchen, crying and yelling as they cleaned the dinner dishes.

He put his iPod ear buds in his ears trying to drown out their sound, and almost like a sick joke, the Brad Paisley song "Two People Fell in Love" came on right. It was the last song they had listened to before they stepped out of the car that night. Landry ripped out the ear buds from his ears and threw the iPod half way across the room.

He fell back into his bed trying to fight back the few tears he had left. He got up from from his bed and walked over to what he liked to call his personal hall of fame. It was a cleared out bookshelf in the front of his room where he stored all of his football memorabilia since he was six and on the _Greater Dallas Five and Up Flag Football Team_. The shelves were cluttered with trophies, medals, and pictures of him in his sports jerseys or out on the field, or anything else he had that was football related. One picture in particular caught his eye. It was him and his dad when he was only seven years old at his first Cowboys game. He could still picture that game like it was yesterday. It was freezing cold outside. That particular fall had been a really harsh one with temperatures down in the 40's almost every day. He and his dad huddled together under his big Cowboys blanket as the second half of the game was coming to a close. It was Cowboys versus Redskins, and the crowed was going wild with a tied score still in place. The Cowboys kicker was up, and all he needed was to make the 47 yard field goal to win the game.

"You see that yellow goal post Landry?" he remembers his dad asking him as he pointed the the big yellow poll that the players had been throwing at all day. "If he kicks the football through the square part of the goal, then the Cowboys win!"

"But what if he doesn't, daddy? Does that mean the red helmet people win?" he asked looking up at his dad

"You mean the Redskins? Heck no! That just means it'll go into overtime, which means the game will last longer."

"Longer? I want it to go into overtime daddy!" Landry shouted at the top of his lungs

"Shh! You want those 300 pound cowboys to hear you?" his dad asked laughing and ruffling his son's soft blond hair.

"But I want the game to last longer daddy, I like spending time with you here!" He said hugging his father.

"Aw, well don't worry! We'll go to plenty more games together, I promise." he said to his son. Suddenly, the kicker began to run towards the ball "Oh watch this Landry! It's going! It's going! YES!" Ripp cried as the ball flew smoothly through the goal.

Landry looked around at all the Cowboys fans quickly rising to their feet, screaming and cheering from the stands. The sense of elation was magical to him. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to throw on a helmet and play himself.

"Go back to D.C.!" he heard his dad yell at the Redskins as they began sulking in their defeat.

He remembered turning to his dad once the cheering stopped and people began leaving and promising him that one day, he would be on that field scoring a touchdown for that team. His dad smiled then picked him up on his shoulders, Landry looked back at the field and wouldn't take his eyes off it until they exited that stadium.

He sighed thinking about that time. It was so much easier back then. All he had were dreams and the sky was his only limit to the things he could accomplish. He picked up the picture and walked with it over to his bed. He was startled when he looked to his left side and saw his dad standing on the inside of the doorway.

"I figured if I knocked you wouldn't let me in." he explained

"You figured right." Landry responded without even looking up from the picture.

His dad walked over to his bed and looked over his shoulder at the picture.

"That was a great day, huh?" his dad asked looking at the image of the two of their smiling faces as they were about to enter the stadium.

"Mhm..." Landry responded flatly

"That was the day you told me you wanted to play for the NFL. Gosh, I was so happy that day. I was sure you were gonna make it big one day, even then. You had that drive in you that was just so unexplainable." his dad sighed "I'm just sorry it had to end up this way."

Landry looked up at his dad in desperation.

"But dad, I still want to go. I don't want to be stuck here in Dallas, raising a kid, while Alexandra, and Mckinney, and everyone else but me gets to go off and live their dream. This wasn't supposed to happen!"

"Well son, I guess you should have thought about that before you went behind our backs and had sex with her." his dad lectured "Honestly though what the _Hell _were you thinking?"

"I don't know dad!" Landry snapped "I knew I was leaving in a couple weeks and Laura was talking about missing me and stuff and, I don't know, it was just something I wanted to do before I left!"

"Well _that_ plan worked out well. Now, neither of you are gonna be leaving this place for a long, long time."

"Yeah, don't you think I know that now?" He fought back. Just then, his bedroom door gently opened and in came his mother, hoping to settle the argument.

"Landry, sweetie?" his mom asked as she walked up beside her husband.

"Oh, God, you _too_?" Landry muttered to himself

"Watch it young man! You know, none of us would even be in this mess right now if it wasn't for you and your girlfriend's carelessness! Jesus! Didn't anyone teach you two about birth control?"

"Well, we know Amanda certainly didn't." Carlene joked "I mean come on now, two kids by the time she was twenty" she smirked "and she was calling _me_ the oval office."

Ripp and Landry both rolled their eye's at her.

"Mom, no offense, but this is _so_ not about you..." Landry said

"That's quite enough from you Landry!" His dad yelled again "Look, I was _trying_ to reach some sort of level with you, but you_ clearly_ have no consideration or concern for anyone but yourself! I pray that these next nine months will teach you a little something, or Lord help that child now."

Landry's parents left, slamming the door, and leaving him alone with his thoughts. He felt horrible for the things he said to his parents, but he couldn't help it. His entire world had just changed in just twenty four hours, and he felt like he had no way to cope with it. Not only that, but he was also dreading tomorrow when he would have to call the school he worked so hard to get into and tell them he could no longer go, all because of a stupid choice they had made.

He got up from his bed, putting the picture back in it's spot and turned off the lights. Whenever he was scared, or depressed about something, he always liked going into his room, turning off every light, and just lie there, it was almost like a safe space for him. In the dark room, he could forget about all the horrible things going on outside that door, almost like they weren't happening. He knew it was childish and stupid, but at a time like this, it was exactly what he needed. Once all the lights were off, he made his way through the darkness to his bed, flopped down onto it, and cried himself to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8: All for Nothing

At 3 am, Landry was startled when his phone began lighting up and blasting his ring tone "We are Young". He grabbed his phone off the nightstand, and saw Laura's picture appear on the screen.

"What could she want?" he thought as he pressed the bright green talk button.

"Hey? Whats going on?" he asked still half asleep

"Landry! It's time!" he heard her scream from the other end of the phone.

He immediately felt his heart race as he tried to process what she had said. "What? No it can't be!" he shouted. "You're only a few weeks along!"

"Well I'm not so sure the baby got the message! It'll be fine just meet me there." she said then suddenly hung up the phone

Suddenly, Landry found himself in the hospital delivery room dressed in turquoise scrubs and a surgical mask. He looked down at Laura as she moaned and cried from the painful contractions.

"All right baby, it's time to push." announced a nurse who oddly resembled Laura's mother.

"Mrs. Vaughn? You're the nurse?" he asked out of confusion.

Mrs. Vaughn ignored him and began coaching Laura through the birthing process.

"Alright baby, it's coming! I can see the head! Just one more big one!" she called out as Laura laid there in the hospital bed pushing with all her might. "Here it is!" Mrs. Vaughn cried as the the baby's cry began to fill the hospital room.

Landry watched in horror as Mrs. Vaughn held up a blood covered, serpent-like creature with the head and face of a shriveled up potato. Suddenly, out of nowhere, the baby began to scream. The sound was so loud and piercing like nails to a chalkboard. It made Landry's eardrums vibrate in less than a minute of being in the room with it. Mrs. Vaughn carried the infant over to the bathing station, making him only scream and fuss more. Seconds Later, she turned back around with the still blood-dripping baby wrapped up in a light-blue bloodstained blanket.

"Here's your son." she said handing the child to Landry. The baby, or whatever it was, began dripping blood everywhere getting it all over his arms, scrubs, and shoes."

"Nurse?" he asked looking up nervously "Is this _supposed_ to happen?" but there was no answer.

All of a sudden she, as well as Laura magically evaporated into thin air. The walls began turning white and all the furniture started disappearing one after the other. Before he knew it, he was left all alone in a blank white room with no one but the creature the two of them had somehow created.

"Laura?" he called out in desperation "Mrs. Vaughn? Anyone?"

Just then, everything faded out and Landry suddenly found himself back in his own bed, in his room. It was was well into the morning with the sunlight and blue sky slightly glowing through Landry's dark blue curtains. It took him a second to realize none of that had actually happened and that everything was ok with both Laura and the baby.

"It was just a dream." he finally whispered, trying to calm himself down, then it occurred to him, it really was just a dream. Maybe that meant it was _all_ just a dream. Maybe he would go downstairs that morning and find everything back to normal, just as it should be. He then glanced down at the floor, noticing the iPod that he had tossed across the room the night before. "Or maybe I'm totally screwed." he muttered in disappointment.

He looked at the clock. It was ten, which meant the admissions office was already open. He grabbed his phone from his nightstand and began searching through the contacts to find the university's number. He had called there so many times speaking to coaches and the admissions office, that he finally decided to put it in as a contact for his phone. He stared at the number for a second, deciding if this was really what he wanted to do. He thought back to when Laura told him about the baby and how he promised to be there for his kid no matter what. He kept that in his mind as he pressed the call button, and waited for someone to pick up.

"Hello! University of Texas admissions office, this is Lori speaking." answered a chipper college-aged girl.

"Yes...hi, my name is Landry Cockburn." he said nervously "I recently accepted a full football scholarship for the 2012 through 2016 school years."

"Alright. Just one minute Mr. Cockburn, let me pull up your file." he heard typing through the phone. "Ah, yes! Here you are! Congratulations Mr. Cockburn! Now what is it you're calling about today? Oh, and if you need to be connected to athletics department I'd be happy to do that as well."

Landry's heart sank "No, no ma'am that won't be necessary. Um, I'm actually calling to..._deny_ my acceptance."

"Oh...ok," the young woman responded. "Do you have another school interested in you, because as someone who's been involved in athletics here for the past three years, I can tell you right now that I know for a fact you were on everyone in the department's short list, and I'm sure if you explain that to the head coach, he'd be willing to work with you and maybe even give you more perks...maybe even an apartment style living space!

This conversation was getting more and more depressing by the second. Landry had no choice but to explain the whole pregnancy situation to Lori. By the end, she was speechless.

"So...is this all I have to do to deny it?" he asked trying to get back on topic.

"Uhh, yeah," she responded nervously. "that's it on your part. Myself or someone else in the admissions office will take care of the rest. Thank you for letting us know, Mr. Cockburn. Have a nice day." she quickly hung up the phone.

"That was it," he thought to himself. "There goes _everything_ I worked for. Over in just one phone call."

He wanted to lie in bed for the rest of the day, the rest of his life maybe, but he knew his mom would kill him for oversleeping once again. Reluctantly, he got out from under his covers, and slowly dragged himself downstairs for breakfast, before his parents had yet another thing to yell at him for.

**Author's Note: Sorry it took me a bit longer to update this one. I had another chapter all written out but decided to go in a different direction and typed up about three new ones last night, so hopefully, the updates will be a bit more frequent. Hope you guys are liking it. I know this chapter was a bit weirder but I thought it was better than Landry just sitting there complaining for the millionth time, which is what I originally wrote :) **


	9. Chapter 9: Taking Care

The kitchen was warm and welcoming with the familiar aroma of biscuits and sausage gravy, a dish his mom used to always make for him when he was younger.

"Good morning, Landry," his mom said in a surprisingly cheerful tone as she stood at the stove scooping the gravy onto a hot buttered biscuit. She carried his along with her and Ripp's plate over and sat down at the table. "Well, y'all, I supposed now is as good a time as ever to say the prayer."

"Fine," Ripp said flatly, putting down his newspaper and taking a sip of coffee out of his blue mug with the McCain/Palin logo.

The three of them joined hands and Carlene began.

"Dear Lord, thank you so much for all of the wonderful things you have blessed us with. Though some of your blessings may not seem like one's at this moment in time, we have full confidence that you do not give us challenges that we cannot handle, and that these small setbacks will teach us even more about life itself." Just then, his mom got a little more tentative and bitter. "We are so..._grateful_ for this..._little miracle_."

"Now wait a minute Carlene!" Ripp announced as soon as the prayer was finished. "We're not _grateful_ for any of this! I mean sure, maybe in the greater scheme of things this baby is some sort of blessing, and maybe _one day_ this kid will grow up to be a pastor, or a missionary, or the next George W. Bush, but right now, we have two soon-to-be teenage parents, one who has to give up a full scholarship, and one who hasn't even entered her senior year. Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but to _me_, none of those thing's are worth being even remotely grateful for."

"Ripp," Carlene reprimanded quietly.

"No, Carlene!" Ripp fought back. "You can say whatever you want about this child, but I for one_ refuse_ to to act like like any good will come out of this situation any time soon!" he stated, taking a fork-full of biscuit.

"Can we please talk about anything else?"

"No!" Ripp yelled, pointing his fork at Landry.

"Fine then!" Landry said, getting out of his chair and slamming against the wooden table.

"Yeah, and just where do you think you're going, young man?" his dad called out as Landry walked towards the front door.

"I don't know," he said opening the door. "Somewhere where I'm not constantly attacked by my own family!" He walked out the door then did a double back. "And don't call me that! I'm about to be a father, damn it! A _FATHER_!"

He slammed the door behind him and began walking further away from his house. He hated the person he was becoming, and he hated his parents, specifically his father, for only adding insult to injury by feeling the need to put down his mistake every chance he had.

He walked himself across the sleepy Hillside street and over to Laura's. He needed space from his parents, but more importantly, he needed to be with someone who understood the situation as well as he did.

He started to make his way up the doorstep when he suddenly heard the garage door open. He saw her mom's silver Nissan pull out onto the driveway, with Laura and her mom both in the car. He waved, but they just ignored him and continued to pull out onto the road. Laura's mother looked furious, while Laura was in the passenger seat trying her hardest to ignore him. They got on the road and quickly drove away passed his house, and turned right onto Magnolia Road. Landry got out his phone and began texting Laura.

Landry (11:16 am): _Hey...where r u going? _

He stood there checking his Facebook updates as he anxiously waited for a response. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally felt his phone vibrate. He sighed when he realized it was only a text from Bozeman asking if he wanted to shoot hoops with him later. He ignored it and began playing angry birds, still waiting for a response from Laura. At last, after twenty more minutes, she finally texted back.

Laura (11:44 am): _I'm taking care of it, ok? It was my mom's idea but my decision...she told me all this bad stuff __she went through and I just don't want it happening to me. I'm sorry Landry but I just can't anymore. _

**Author's Note: Full editing credit as well as the ending of this chapter goes to my sister :) Next chapter should be up soon!**


	10. Chapter 10: Missionary

Landry's mind went into a panic. He read the text two more times just to make sure he understood what she was actually doing. How could she do this to him? It's not like she was raped, or had a boyfriend that abandoned her. She was doing this for purely selfish reasons and didn't even _bother_ to inform him of this horrible act.

Landry (11:48 am): _WTF __LAURA?__! DON'T U DARE DO ANYTHING 2 MY BABY! IM GOING OVER THERE! _

Laura (11:49 am): _Landry just stop! I've made up my mind. _

Laura (11:50 am): _Besides, you don't even know where I'm going! _

Landry (11:52 am): _Its Dallas...theres only 1 place u COULD b going -_- _

Laura (11:55 am): _Whatever. Just DON'T come. _

Landry (11:55 am):_ NO!_

Laura (11:56 am): _LANDRY! _

Landry shoved his phone back into his jean pocket. He felt it vibrate a few more times as he ran back to his house, but he was done talking to her.

"Oh, look who's back." his dad called out from the living room as Landry went to the kitchen to grab his keys off the counter.

"Can't talk." he responded quickly as he fumbled through the stacks of books and papers on the counter to find where he last left his keys. "Damn it!" he called out once he was unable to find them"Dad can I use your car?"

"What happened to yours?" His dad asked, not taking his eyes off the TV

"I can't find the keys, ok? I put them right here on the counter the other night and now I don't know where they are."

"That's why you put them on the key rack in the laundry room like the rest of us." His dad said, pointing to the laundry room door across the hall. "Jesus! He's about to be a father in nine months and he can't even remember where he last left his car keys." he said to himself

"Landry, what do you even _need _your keys for?" his mom asked flipping through her 6 inch Paula Deen cookbook "The dishes aren't done, you're in desperate need of a shower, and were leaving at three."

"Leaving? Where are we going?" he asked turning away from the counter and going through one of the kitchen drawers

"Your going away party." his dad responded bluntly

Landry shut the kitchen drawer and looked at both of his parents.

"So, you're having a going away party for someone who isn't going anyway anymore...?"

"_We're_ not. Your grandmother is." Carlene stated

Landry couldn't believe what he was hearing. Were his parents trying to to torture him by making him go up to every single member of his family and admit that he wasn't going to Texas anymore because he got his girlfriend pregnant?

"But guys, I'm not going anywhere. There's no need for a celebration when there's clearly nothing to celebrate right now. You said so yourself dad, nothing to celebrate."

"No..." his dad said getting off the couch "I said nothing to be _grateful for. Grateful _son! Gosh will you please just listen to me once in a while?"

"Sorry. Grateful. Whatever." he said going back to his cabinet. "Anyway, why exactly are we having this party."

"Because your family has come in from all over Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma to congratulate you, and because we didn't plan on you having to deny your scholarship the day before you were scheduled to leave, due to matters that were certainly out of _our_, but not_ your_ control." his dad gave him a look "Anymore questions?"

"Yes." he said slamming the drawer once again "Can I _please_ borrow one of your cars?"

"Why?" his parents both asked

"I can't tell you."

His parents gave him a look of dissatisfaction. He didn't exactly want to tell them that his girlfriend was planning on committing the ultimate sin of terminating her pregnancy, but it was clear they wouldn't give him the car unless he told them what was going on.

"Ok, basically Laura sent me a text saying she was planning on _taking care_ of the pregnancy and I came back to grab my car and stop her."

His parents exchanged looks of horror. They were both speechless, unable to even communicate how awful this situation was.

"I'll go with you!" his mom finally announced slamming the book shut and heading over to the laundry room to grab her keys.

"What? Why?" he asked completely shocked and frankly horrified

"Well, you don't think you can do this alone do you?" his mom asked running out of the laundry room with her keys, and heading straight upstairs to her room.

"Uhh...yeah!" he called up from the bottom of the stairs "That was kind of the plan! And what are you doing up there?"

"Got it!" she yelled then quickly ran back downstairs

"Got what?" he asked getting annoyed "Oh no! No! No! No! NO!" he said pointing to the small red bible his mom was carrying in her left hand "No _Bibles_! That is the _last_ thing I need right now!"

"Don't be silly sweetie! Of course it's not what _you_ need. _You're_ not the one that's going to Hell if you're not taught the lessons of the the Lord." his mom said shaking the bible in her hand.

"Oh my _God_, is this really necessary?"

"You want to stop her, I'm coming with you." his mom said opening the door in the laundry room that lead to the garage. Landry realized her had no choice but to take his mom up on her offer. After all, bringing his mom along was better than having the child aborted (Not that his mom coming would be any walk in the park either). He reluctantly agreed and he and his mom got in her white Lexus hoping, or in his mom's case praying, that there would be some way to prevent this from happening.

**Author's Note: As always, hoping you guys are liking it. I know this maybe wasn't the most exciting chapter but it was a way to set up things for the next one :) Hoping to edit the next one soon and have it up asap! **


	11. Chapter 11: Confession

As they drove the thirty-five miles to the clinic, his mom insisted on lecturing him the whole way there about Jesus, and why Laura and her mom are sinners and are going to go to Hell. Landry blocked her out, worrying what his mother planned to do, and what Laura would think of him showing up like this when she specifically told him not to.

They arrived at the Women's Health Center and he could still see the silver Nissan parked in the far spot of the parking lot. His mom got out of the car, bible in tow, and marched over to the front entrance. Landry got out of the car, not sure if he should be rushing or taking his sweet time considering either would result in some sort of feud between everyone. His mom stood at the doorway motioning for him to walk faster.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" he responded annoyed at his mother for feeling like this was her place to butt in.

He walked into the clinic and found the two of them still in the waiting room, Laura reading a magazine with Katy Perry on the front page, and her mom filling out what he assumed was medical information on a clipboard. Neither one of them had realized they had entered until his mom noticed them, and out of nowhere yelled,

"You sinner!" as she made her way through the few chairs and people in the waiting area.

Laura and her mom looked up from what they were doing and were obviously shocked to see the two of them making a scene in the waiting area.

"Carlene?" Amanda asked as she got up and threw the clipboard down on the chair "What the Hell do you think you're doing here?"

"What the Hell do you think you're doing,_ period_?" Carlene fired back "How dare you! How dare you make your daughter have my _grandchild_ aborted!"

"It's her baby!"

"It takes two people to make a child sweetie, but I'm sure _you _know all about that!"

Both of their moms continued arguing about whose right it was to make a decision about the child while Landry tentatively walked up to Laura who was sitting cross-legged in her seat waiting for an explanation.

"What the heck, Landry?" she asked finally said slamming her magazine shut. "I _told_ you not to come here! God! What the Hell wrong with you?"

Landry didn't answer, he just looked down sheepishly at the blue-carpeted floor, wishing that none of this was happening. Just then, the twenty-something brunette, who had been managing the front desk walked up to their parents and asked them to continue the discussion outside. Landry's mom called her a sin-enabler and they were both quickly escorted out.

"Great. Thanks a lot Landry." she said then grabbed her white and pink Coach purse and followed her mother outside. Landry quickly followed right behind her.

They got outside and found there parents already in the midst of a heated argument.

"I refuse to have my daughter drop out of school, live off of welfare, and be forced to work at Armadillo Mart for the rest of her life, while your son abandons her and the baby to go off and live his life like nothing ever happened!" Laura's mom shouted

"Excuse me?" Carlene yelled with her eyes wide open "What makes you so sure that your slut of a daughter wouldn't go off with some loser and leave my Landry with the baby?"

"It's called statistics Carlene! Eight out of ten teen guys leave their pregnant girlfriend's!" she explained to Carlene

"Well he won't! Just don't let her have the abortion!"

"Why do you even care? This works out well for _you too_! Now your son can go off and be a football star guilt free!"

"Guilt free?" Carlene asks getting a little quieter "How about the fact that he murdered a human life just for his own selfish desires?"

"Ok ya I get that-"

"No you don't, Amanda." Everyone noticed Carlene's voice getting sadder, an odd and honestly refreshing change to the high pitched screams they were getting just seconds before. "You _kept_ Laura."

Landry, along with everyone else could see there was some other reason for her feeling so strongly about this baby surviving. Sure, a lot of people feel strongly about not having a baby aborted, and Carlene very well may_ be_ one of those people, but looking at her, her voice so soft and broken, and her eyes beginning to gloss over with tears, even Landry, who thought he knew his mom so well, had good reason to believe there was something more.

"Carlene?" Amanda softened her tone "Why do you _really_ not want Laura to have this abortion?"

"What do you mean?" Carlene responded almost immediately "It's a sin. The Bible believes that all children are a gift from God, and so do I. Why does there have to be some other reason?"

"Well there doesn't _have_ to be" Amanda said looking right into Carlene's eyes "But I have a funny feeling that in this case, there is."

Carlene stepped back. It was obvious she was deciding in her head whether she wanted to tell whatever secret she may have.

"I was a junior, same age as you were Amanda." she suddenly began, looking up at her "I was having what seemed like a casual flirtation with this one boy in my church youth group. He was a year older and known for having a drug problem, but I didn't care. After a little while he and I began going out. He wasn't much for Church, so he talked me into ditching the Friday night bible study, and took me to Sonic instead. After gobbling down a couple coneys and sneaking a quick smoke at the dumpster behind the restaurant, the two of us drove all night covering every corner of Hillside. Around three in the morning, we came across this old abandoned field that used to be a dairy farm before it burned down several years ago, and the two of us just sat there in the front seats kissing and making out just like any two teenagers in love." She looked at both Landry and Laura and smiled "We made out for a little bit and after a while he asked me if...if I wanted to you know...do it, and I _stupidly_ agreed knowing he didn't have a condom and was probably too high to even realize any of the consequences. The whole time I kept thinking how wrong it was and how much I would probably come to regret it, but it just felt so good, you know? Not even the sex, but just knowing that _someone_ saw me like that. Sure enough, a few weeks later I had gained twelve pounds and threw up in the middle of physics class." Carlene looked up at Amanda, who had made fun of her for the rest of the school year after she had, had the puke episode in Mr. Miller's class the day they were learning about relative tangential motion. "When my mom found out I was pregnant she told me," Tears began filling up in her eyes. It was the first time Landry had ever seen his mother cry. "She told me that I was a disgrace, and that Jesus hated me, and that if I didn't have an abortion she would kick my big sorry ass out of the house and never let me come back." she paused "So, I went to this very clinic the next day with my mother and I...I had an abortion."

Landry's heart sank down to his stomach. He couldn't believe that the mother whom he had believed could do no wrong when it came to obeying the Lord, had done something he had come to know as being so sinful. Not only that, but he almost felt betrayed by her. She and his father had been judging him so harshly for getting Laura pregnant, but here his mom was, admitting that she not only got pregnant even younger than they are, but that she had it aborted all to get approval from her mother who ended up abandoning her the day she turned eighteen, leaving her with no one but his Aunt Bitsy and Uncle Earl. He would have screamed at her had she not looked so pitiful, taking a seat on the curb, bawling her eyes out. Landry wanted to hate her for not telling him, but instead, sat down right beside her hugging and comforting her, just as he had wanted from her last night, when he told _her_ about _his_ baby.

**Author's Note: Surprised? I thought about doing this chapter differently (I seriously have about 3 possible outcomes written in various documents/journals) and just having Laura make a decision and be done with the chapter, but I felt like that was boring and I also felt I made Carlene too casual about the pregnancy, saying it was a blessing and all, and my sister thought this would be a nice twist as well. Hope everyone liked this one! It was probably one of the most fun to write :)**


	12. Chapter 12: Choices

"Carlene." Amanda said kneeling down on the other side of her "I had no idea. I'm so, _so_ sorry."

"Why do you think I've always hated you?" she asked now looking out into space. "I mean sure, it didn't help that you, called me fat, ugly and basically tortured me every day of high school, but I'm over that now. Amanda, what really pisses me off is that you got to do something I never even had the option of doing; keep your baby without any force, or judgment."

Amanda began laughing. Even Landry knew that last statement wasn't true. When Laura's grandma learned about the pregnancy she had _begged _Amanda to move away until the baby was born, and give it to a relative that lived down in New Orleans. She received so much hate from her family and classmates that she felt she had no choice but to run away with Laura's father, Bill, which obviously didn't end so well either.

"Laura," Carlene said standing up, and going over to her "You don't want to do this. Ever since I did..._that_, I still, to this day feel like I have to ask God for forgiveness all the time. It's why I'm as religious as I am. It's almost like I sinned so badly then, that I feel I have to be as good a Christian as I can to make up for it now. I don't want you to live with the same guilt I do. There are other, better ways to handle something like this. You can place them up for an open adoption and still be able to see the child, or...if you_ really_ want to keep it, your mom and myself and Ripp would be willing to help you two with that as well."

"Thank you, Ms. Carlene." Laura said sincerely then looked at both her and Landry "If you guy's don't mind, I think my mom and I can take it from here." she said grabbing her moms hand.

"Do you know what you're going to do?" Landry asked concerned.

"No," Laura said shaking her head "but Landry, I need you to promise me that whatever I choose, you'll still be there for me, and you won't judge me, or hate me, or leave me. This...this is going to be hard enough."

Landry agreed, even though he knew in his heart that if she were to actually go through with it, he would have a hard time looking at her the same way, and an even harder time accepting that he just let it happen.

Following his agreement, the four of them said their goodbyes and he and his mom made their way back to the car, leaving the bible with Laura, which Landry thought was a little insensitive, but he was glad his girlfriend would at least have some way to hopefully guide her in the right direction (if she at least bothered opening it). Landry looked back at Laura as his mom pulled out of the parking lot. She and her mom were just standing there, in front of the clinic, probably discussing what she planned on doing.

"Mom?" Landry asked as they made their way onto the main road "Do you think Laura will go through with it?"

"I don't know, Landry." his mom said sounding worried "I think she has the knowledge and tools to know what's best for her and the baby, but it is ultimately _her_ decision."

"So I'm learning..." Landry muttered under his breath "I mean I guess I just don't understand how anyone could do something like that." he glanced act his mom who seemed irritated by his last statement "No offense." he quickly added

His mom nodded. They spent the rest of the ride in silence, both wondering what the fate of the child would be.

They arrived home to find his dad right where they had left him, sitting on the couch watching TV.

"How was your mission?" Ripp called out staring blankly at the television screen.

"It was fine." Landry said plopping down next to his father on their brown leather couch.

"Yeah." Carlene agreed pouring wine into two thin champagne glasses. "So, I told Landry about the..." she gave him a look hoping he would understand.

"Oh yes, that." his dad said nodding at his mom, as she brought the two champagne glasses over to the couch and handed one to her husband. "Now you know your mama's little secret." he said looking over at his son. "But don't you go off thinking you can just have this abortion and be done with it. Your mother was _forced_ to make that decision. No one is forcing you to do anything in this house."

"Technically, telling me I'm not allowed to have an abortion _is_ a type of force, but ok." he mumbled quietly

"Hey now!" Ripp fired back. "Don't you dare talk back to me, do understand?" Landry nodded "Now then, your party is in two hours, I suggest you go upstairs, freshen up, and figure out how your going to tell your whole family your situation."

"What am I supposed to say, dad?" Landry asked standing up from his seat on the couch "Hi Papi, it turns out I won't be going to college after all because I knocked my girlfriend up after prom?!" he asked mimicking what he would say "How would _that_ look?!"

"Exactly as it is. A lousy, screwed up situation!"

Landry rolled his eyes and went upstairs to his room, completely ignoring his parents, who he assumed were still talking about him as he made his way down the upstairs hallway to his room. He slammed the door shut, not knowing if he was more nervous about telling his whole family about his mistake, or Laura's decision about the pregnancy.

He ended up taking a forty-five minute shower. It was nice to be alone with nothing but his thoughts and the hot steamy water hitting his back. He thought about everything from his slowly straining relationship with his father, to how he would feel if Laura actually had the abortion. About thirty-five minutes into the shower, just as the water started getting a little cooler, Landry shamefully found himself thinking of the positives with her just going through with the abortion. He would be able to maybe get his scholarship back, go to college, play for the Cowboys, it really _would_ be like nothing ever happened. After all, look how much better off his mom is because she had it. Landry started hating himself for actually wanting the baby gone, but hearing his mom's story and seeing how well her life turned out by aborting the baby almost made it not seem so bad.

"Crap." he said to himself as he turned the water all the way hot, trying to get that last bit of warm water he could out of the shower. "I actually want this baby aborted..." and there, once again, he found himself crying in the shower until the water turned so cold he could no longer stand it.

He dried himself off with his white towel with his name embroidered in red cursive letters and went to his room to pick out a some clothes to wear. He chose a sky-blue dress shirt, and a bright red tie, hoping it would make him a little more innocent.

"Landry!" He heard his mom yell as loud as she could from the kitchen "Were leaving in five!"

Landry quickly put on his khaki pants and grabbed his cellphone off his bed blanket. Just then, he felt it vibrate in the palm of his hand as he headed for his bedroom door. It was a text from Laura. He could feel his heart pound for probably the hundredth time in the past twenty-four hours. Any more of this, and he was certain he would die of a heart attack by his next birthday.

He wanted to tap that little envelope button that would basically reveal his fate for the rest of his life, but he was honestly terrified to find out the outcome. What if him secretly hoping for the child to be aborted resulted in it actually happening? How would he be able to live with himself?

"Landry! Get down here!" his mother called out once again

It was as good a time as any. With his index finger rapidly shaking, Landry slowly hit the button.

Laura (2:24 pm): _I couldn't do it. Hearing what your mom said made me realize I don't want to do this to our baby. I'm also sorry I never told you what I was doing. I was just scared of what you would think of me...you still love me :( ?_

Landry let out a huge sigh of relief. At least now he wouldn't have to feel guilty about being secretly unsure if he wanted her to go through with the pregnancy. He pressed the reply button and responded back to her.

Landry (2:26 pm): _Of course I do! I'll talk to u soon :)_

Landry was relieved. It was the first good thing that had happened since the revelation of the pregnancy.

**Author's Note: Just letting you know the updates may not be as frequent...I'm on vacation and the wifi isn't so great here, but I'll try to update as often as I can :)**


	13. Chapter 13: Family Ties

Landry raced downstairs to tell the good news to his parents.

` "Thank the Good Lord!" Carlene rejoiced, grabbing Landry and giving him the tightest hug he had ever gotten.

Landry looked over to see his dad's reaction, but he just stood there looking as bland as ever.

"Dad?" Landry asked, looking eye to eye with his father. "Aren't you happy? The baby wasn't aborted!"

His dad didn't respond. Not wanting to get involved in yet another potential argument, Carlene ran to get the newly frosted red velvet cake she planned on bringing to the party. Landry looked down at the dessert, covered in a clear plastic cake container with cream cheese frosting, and noticed something sloppily frosted in dark blue letters. He took a closer look and noticed it said, "Congrats, Landry".

"Mom?!" he exclaimed, pointing at the cake. "What is this?! Are you trying to ruin everything?!"

"Landry!" Ripp yelled, "One more obnoxious comment from you Mr. Cockburn and I'll-"

"Fine! Lets just go!" Landry said, then walked to the garage doorway and slammed the door behind him.

The ride to his Grammy and Papi Cockburn's house was quiet and long. Landry stared blankly out the window at the moving cars and houses he had seen a million times before on his way to their house. This time, though, everything felt different as he looked through the window at all the houses with little three-wheel tricycles, and young children playing hopscotch along their driveways. He had a different perspective now, a father's perspective, and it scared the Hell out of him.

He walked into his grandparents house and was attacked by his younger cousins, throwing dark orange and white balloons from the balcony. A huge hand-painted banner hung above the door way to the kitchen that read "Go Get Em', Landry" using the same colors. Landry felt sick to his stomach. Just then, his Grammy and Papi Cockburn came charging out of the kitchen and into the hallway to greet their accomplished grandson.

Landry looked around the front hall at all of his family, who had traveled so far just to send him off. He felt an extreme amount of guilt rush through his body as they all looked at him, so proud and hopeful, thinking that he was going to bring great joy to the family.

There were small pockets of chatter going on throughout the hall. Landry stood there awkwardly as a number of family members he didn't recognize came up to him saying how proud and happy they were. As the chatter began to die down he suddenly heard a familiar voice call out in the sea of people.

"So how does it feel to be playing for Texas, Landry?" he saw, almost immediately, that it was his Uncle Luke.

The crowed became silent with the exception of a few voices that agreed with his Uncle, and were curious about his thoughts on the achievement.

"This is it," Landry thought to himself as he looked out at all his family members that were all so happy for him. _Now is as good a time as any. _

He looked over at his parents, his mom with a worried expression on her face, and his dad, giving him a stern look that he knew from past experience meant he should just lay everything out on the table and tell his family that he wasn't going.

"Thank you, everyone, for coming all the way out here to support me," he began as his Papi grabbed his cellphone and began recording the speech. "It really means a lot to see all of you out here, and to know that I have such a strong family that has my back no matter what. As you all know, back in late April, I was told by the athletics and admissions department that I would receive a full football scholarship for all four year of school. Well," he commented, partly to himself, "of course you know, otherwise y'all wouldn't be here today." There were a few giggles throughout the family. "What you may not know, and what I didn't even know until yesterday is that I won't be able to accept their offer after all." there were a few gasps in the crowd. "Yesterday, I was informed by my girlfriend that..." He paused, looking over at his parents again. His mom rested her head on her father's shoulders, looking like she was about to burst into tears. "...that I am going to be a father in about nine months."

The whole room suddenly went silent. He looked straight across the room at his Papi, who was quickly trying to turn his cellphone off and shove it back into his black pant pocket. He saw a few parents send their younger kids out to the backyard to play, and watched the remaining adults and older children look back and forth between him and his parents for a more detailed explanation.

"I made... a horrible decision one night," he explained, looking mainly at his younger cousins and relatives that were still in the room, who seemed a bit confused as to how this could be happening to Landry, who was like an older brother to a lot of them. "I did what I wanted to, knowing it was wrong, and now I'm living with the consequences. Sorry to disappoint all of y'all, and, uh, enjoy the rest of the party," he hung his head in shame as he walked back with his parents.

Nobody knew what to do except stand there nervously, trying not to stare at him and his family. Luckily, his Papi cracked a joke saying now this could be a baby shower and had his Grammy lead everyone out to the backyard to grab some food, giving his Papi an opportunity to talk to Landry and his parents.

"Ya'll can go outside and grab some food along with everyone else." his Papi said, looking at both of his parents. "I'd actually like to talk to my grandson alone, if you don't mind."

His parents nodded, probably worried about having to face the whole family after what their son had just admitted to everyone. They went through the screen door out to the backyard, leaving only him and his Papi alone to talk. It was a little awkward speaking to him alone since, even though he is his real grandpa, he only saw him maybe once a year, since he divorced his mom's mom when Carlene was only five years old. His Grandma Lourd (Carlene's mom) had issues with alcohol and drugs, so his Papi tried to stay out of the picture as much as possible. That being said, Landry felt extremely uncomfortable standing here, with his grandpa, whom he hardly knew, talking about something so uncomfortable that he didn't even really like talking about it with Laura.

"So," His Papi began, taking a seat on the wooden staircase. "It seems you've gotten yourself into a little bit of trouble."

"You can say that again." Landry said taking a seat on the next step up. "I don't know Papi, I knew it was wrong, and I actually stayed awake during sex ed and everything but, I don't know, I guess I just didn't care."

His Papi began laughing. "Well, Landry, you are your mother's child. The Good Lord himself knows she could never keep her legs closed, still can't!"

Landry Laughed nervously, feeling kind of uncomfortable talking about his mother's sex life. Finding out about the abortion, was more than he ever needed to know about her.

"Yeah, well, I'm just sorry I made you both go to all this trouble for just to tell you I'm not going." he said looking down at the floor. "I just wish I didn't have to be here right now, you know? I mean, it's not like this isn't a great party, its just everyones going to keep asking me questions and honestly, I'm still getting used to this myself."

His Papi paused for a second.

"You know what, kid? What you need is some fresh air." his Papi said walking over to the key rack next to the front door. "I always feel better after taking a spin around the block in my seventy-four Chevy" he said then tossed him the keys. "Take it around for a little bit." he said tossing him the key's, I'll let your folks know you'll be back soon."

**Author's Note: A lot of the editing credit goes to my sister. Thanks to all my readers and if you guys wouldn't mind writing a quick review, I'd greatly appreciate it. Also, if you have any suggestions for this, or another story, I'd love to hear those as well :)**


	14. Chapter 14: Relaxation

**Disclaimer: Haven't added one in a while but I still own nothing mentioned here or in any of my chapters (sadly).**

Landry had never been more relieved to be away from everyone. He got his his Papi's old, red Chevy and just began cruising down the local roads. He had no music playing, and his cellphone on silent. As he turned onto Bennett Road, he began hearing music blasting outside his car, that only got louder and louder as he made his way to the end of the street. It wasn't until he hit the corner house, the Peacham house, that he remembered Bozeman mentioning the other day about having a crazy party while his parents were off at some business convention promoting their weird biblical diet plan. There were cars lining up all along the curb, many he noticed, were from school. He watched the house for a minute, contemplating going in, until he noticed three gorgeous looking blonde's all walking towards the back yard in their tiny pink, blue, and yellow string bikini's

"I'll only go in for a minute." he thought pulling over about three houses back in between a green and light blue beetle car, with the license plate "SEXYTXASS" on the back of the light blue one.

He walked up the block and went to the backyard where almost a hundred crazy high school graduates were partying in and around the pool area.

"Hey! Hey!" He heard a familiar voice yell from inside the pool. "Landry! Ya made it!" It was Bozeman holding two brown glass bottles of Budwiser in between two of the three hot blonds he had noticed coming in. "What are you doin' dressed all fancy like that?!" He asked starting to slur his words

"Oh..." Landry said noticing how out of place he looked in his nice dress shirt, pants, and tie. "Well, I'm only dropping by, I'm supposed to be at my...going away party..."

"Oh ya! You still goin' to that place?" he asked taking a big gulp of beer. "Word on the street is y'all screwed 'round after prom that night and now Laura's knocked up and stuff, cause of you!"

Landry was floured, it hadn't even been forty-eight hours and already the whole town was talking about it.

"Where did you hear that?" Landry asked getting closer to the edge of the pool.

"Mckinney told me this morning!"

"Right..." Landry nodded slowly. "How did _she_ hear about it"

"Hell if I know! Guessin' yur girl told her or somthin'!"

This was exactly what Landry didn't need to hear. He was about to explain why he couldn't go to Texas, when out of nowhere came this large, drunk boy carrying a gallon of what Landry assumed was beer, running along the pool yelling random words of profanity. He was clearly too drunk to see where he was really going and consequently slammed into Landry, causing him to belly-flop into the pool, while the crazy drunk continued running along like nothing ever happened.

"Crap!" Landry yelled looking at himself dripping wet in his nice clothes. "How the Hell am I supposed to explain this to my parents?!"

"Relax dude!" Bozeman said handing him the unopened bottle of beer. "Drink this!"

Landry looked down at the bottle wondering if this would actually help anything.

"Go on!" Bozeman said taking another big gulp.

"You really think it will help...?" Landry asked extremely unsure.

"Hell yeah! I mean bro, you must be so freaked n' whatever 'bout the baby, this'll fix ya right up!"

Slowly, Landry brought the bottle to is mouth and took a large sip. It was cold and bitter with a puke-like aftertaste, but it made his head spinning as it was going down and for a couple of seconds, he was actually able to relax.

"That's just the beginnin' Landry! Go on! Chug er' down!"

Landry continued to drink every last drop of beer in that bottle. It was great, after only one beer he was already starting to feel more at ease. He got out of the pool, his clothes still soaking wet, and went over to the bright red cooler that was filled to the brim with Budwiser, Miller Lights, and every other beer imaginable. He grabbed two more bottles of Coors, and jumped back into the pool. He knew it was extremely rude leaving his own party his grandparents had worked so hard to put together for him, but at last, he was able to just kick back, and be a teenager again.

After his fifth bottle of beer, he was extremely drunk. He tried to find Bozeman in the mess of teens and broken beer bottles, but he was so dizzy that everyone looked the like the same blurred up mess. He made his way over to the snack counter, grabbing a handful of salt n' vinegar chips and a rainbow sprinkle-topped brownie and placed it on a super model covered paper plate. He began gobbling down a brownie when he suddenly felt a tap on his shoulder.

"Hi!" he heard a teenage girl say behind him.

"Hi." Landry turned around with a big chunk of brownie still in his mouth. It was Alexandra, wearing a white see-through cover-up that left little to the imagination. "Uh..." he said looking at her pink and black striped bikini that covered up he gorgeous C cups Landry had secretly dreamed about for years. "How's your summer been?"

"Lousy." she said grabbing a piece of brownie off of Landry's plate and eating it. "Oklahoma's being a pain in the ass about my cheer scholarship, my parents got into a fight so now my daddy spends, like, all his time at the ranch, leaving me alone with my crazy, up-tight mama, and Bozeman and I broke up, maybe fifteen minutes ago after I caught him sucking the life out of some chick." she said rolling her eyes as she bit off the last piece of her brownie.

"Well," Landry said putting his hand on her shoulder. "Not sure how to help you with the first two, but Bozeman's an asshole, don't worry 'bout him."

"He's your best friend!" Alexandra said laughing.

"Which means I know how big an asshole he can get!" Alexandra slapped him playfully on his arm. "Hey now, I only speak the truth!"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Alexandra said taking a chip off of his plate. "Bet you think you're hotter than him to." she said rubbing her hand down his long, strong, right arm.

"Well I'd like to think so!" Landry said still slurring then rolled his right sleeve up to flex the muscle.

"Oh Landry, you're such a big show-off." Alexandra said placing both hands on his shoulders and looking up at him with her beautiful blue eyes. "I bet every college girl on campus is going to be falling head over heels for you...I know I would." Landry looked at her puzzled. "Don't give me that look! I mean, you must know you're, like, one of the hottest guys in Hillside, right?"

This was a dream come true. Before Laura moved in, Landry had had a secret crush on Alexandra since the seventh grade when their teacher, Ms. Hamilton, paired the two of them together for their end of the year English project. Their assignment was to reenact their favorite scene from a classic novel that was assigned to them and they, much to Landry's dismay were assigned _Little Women. _Alexandra had insisted that they do the scene where Laurie kisses Jo and proposes to her, and when the time came to present it, instead of the fake stage kiss they had originally planned on, Alexandra surprised him with a big smooch on the cheek. He was in such awe of her at that moment that he didn't even care that he was prancing around the class room in the most ridiculous black suit and, and it almost made the book not completely insipid.

As Landry and Alexandra continued to casually flirt with each other, he realized the best thing about this situation, was this beer gave him full confidence to say whatever was on his mind instead of getting choked up, like her normally did when he's around her, Laura, or any other hot girl. It was even strong enough to make him not realize how horrible he was being to Laura. It wasn't that he didn't love her, because he did and she was having his kid, but being with Alexandra made him feel normal, and at the moment, all Laura did was remind him of everything that was going on around him. He grabbed another beer from the cooler under the snack table.

"Want one?" he offered handing a bottle of John Adams maybe a little too close to her face. She smiled and began chugging it down like there was no tomorrow. Landry got himself one, and the two of them stood there by the table drinking and having slurred conversations with each other. After her third and Landry's seventh, Alexandra told him that she left her phone upstairs in Mckinney's room from when she was over yesterday.

Landry followed her up the long wooden staircase and led him to Mckinney's room. He had seen the door that was decorated with her name in light pink letter's with a fabric daisy vine going around them tons of times when he went over to visit Bozeman, but he had never actually been in there.

"Do you see it anywhere?" Landry asked slowly scanning the seemingly blurry, pink room.

"Don't be an idiot, Landry!" she said looking at him with her eyes glaring at him seductively. "I don't need no phone up here!"

Landry looked confused..

"Well...what _do_ you need then?"

She suddenly untied the halter strap of her white bathing suit cover up, and it slowly began to fall down her body and onto the floor, revealing her hot pink and black striped bikini. Landry looked down her flawless, tan body, trying his hardest to resist it.

"Landry," she said coming closer to him, putting her soft delicate hands on his shoulders. "I've been wanting you for so, _so_ long." she brought her lips closer and closer to his and before he knew it they were making out passionately.

It was nice for at first, Laura had been so stressed about the baby that they hadn't kissed in almost twenty four hours, nearly a century as far as Landry was concerned, but it wasn't the same, it felt wrong and dirty, nothing like Laura at all. After only a few seconds, her lips started feeling so icky and dry, he could no longer stand it.

"Alexandra!" he shouted shoving her back away from them.

"What's the matter baby? Ain't this what you've always wanted from me?" she tried to get closer to him again, but Landry quickly backed away and fumbled onto Mckinney's bed.

"Oh I see!" she said then jumped on the bed on top of him and continued kissing him as he tried to push her away. Her breath tasted like beer and bubblegum lip gloss, and he wasn't sure if she was doing this purposefully or was just too drunk to have control over anything. He kept trying to push away until he suddenly heard the bedroom door squeak open revealing Mckinney standing there in to doorway looking horrified.

"Mckinney!" Landry shouted finally pushing Alexandra away.

"Landry?!" she shouted walking into her room "What the hell are you two doing in here?!"

Landry looked around the room realizing what this probably looked like to Mckinney.

"I...I can explain."

"Landry!" Alexandra shouted out of nowhere. "How dare you try and come on to me when you know your girlfriend's expecting!" she reprimanded.

Landry's eye's widened he may have still been drunk, but he wasn't oblivious to what had just happened.

"What?! Me?! Mckinney, no! She told me she had to find her phone so I came up here and-"

"Just save the lies, Landry." Alexandra said getting off the bed. "No one's gonna wanna believe your made-up stories."

She walked over to Mckinney and the two of them stood there, staring down at him on the bed.

"Do you believe he did that to me?! He got me all drunken up then tried to have his way with me, the pervert!" he heard Alexandra whisper to her.

"Oh my God, Mckinney, do you actually believe that crap?! I love Laura, I would never cheat on her, she's having my kid!"

"Then why did you try to get me to sleep with you, you pig?!" Alexandra shouted.

"Because I didn't, you whore!" he stood up and shouted at her without thinking.

"That's it!" Mckinney yelled hugging Alexandra close to her "Get the Hell out of my room, my house, and don't think I'm not going to tell Laura what you did!"

"For the millionth time, Mckinney I didn't do anything! Don't you know me better than that?" he asked sincerely.

"I thought so." she said glaring at him. "But I also thought I knew you well enough to know you would never get one of my best friends pregnant!"

Landry had no response to that. He angrily made his way across the room to the doorway, shoved past the girls, and marched downstairs to the front door.

"Hey dude! Where ya goin'?" he heard Bozeman call out from the bathroom in between puking up all his beer.

"I'll txt you later. I gotta get out of here, man."

"What? Is Laura in-" Landry heard puking from the other side of the bathroom door. "Ugh! Sorry. God, I feel like Hell! Hey, she ain't in labor or somethin' right?"

"What? No!" he called back. "Like I said I'll text you later." And he ran out the door and headed straight to his grandpa's car.

**Author's Note: A little but longer a chapter than I intended but that's mostly because it has more dialouge. As mentioned in the last chapter, if you guys wouldn't mind just letting me know what you think, I would really appreciate it!**


	15. Chapter 15: Crashing Down

**Disclaimer: Nope. I own nothing at all, sad but true :(**

He yanked open the red door and began driving back to his grandparents house. He knew it probably wasn't the best idea to drive while he was still pretty drunk, but there was no point in staying any longer trying to convince Mckinney what had happened, and he had already been gone for about two hours, much longer than he or his Papi had planned.

For the most part, despite him being intoxicated, he was able to drive fairly well. Sure, the roads were a bit more zigzagged than usual, but it was nothing he felt he should be concerned about. He got off the main road, and was only minutes away from his grandparents house when he had to make the sharp turn past his old elementary school, a turn he and his parents had trouble making sober. Carefully, he started making the right onto the road, but missed the turn mark and ended up going a little into the other sides lane. Suddenly, without warning he saw a familiar white Lexus brushing against the side of him. He felt a small bump on the left side, followed by and even more familiar male voice yelling,

"What the Hell do you think you're doing?!" from the front drivers seat.

Landry immediately slammed on the breaks as hard as he could consequently hitting his dads back bumper, detaching the left end from the rest of the car.

"Jesus Christ! Watch where you're going!" His dad called out again.

Both cars made their way to the curb right next to a small local cow farm. Landry tentatively turned the car off and slowly got out. He could see his parents through their windows in front of him arguing. He heard their engine shut off and his dad shoving his car door open and slamming it behind him. His mom followed giving him the most disappointed look a mother could give. The kind that makes a kid want to crumble right under their feet because they know how much they let down both them and themselves.

"Guys, I'm really, really-"

"I have the right mind to press charges on you, young man!" His dad yelled as he walked right over to him. "Where on _Earth_ were you and what the _Hell_ were you doing there?!" just then his dad started sniffing the air around him. "Wait a darn minute, Landry Jordan, were you..._drinking_?!"

"I can explain-"

"Oh my GOD!" his dad said practically pulling his hair out.

"Landry you didn't, did you?" his mom asked hoping there had to be some other explanation.

"Of course he was, Carlene!" his dad said looking at his mom then pointing back to Landry "Just get a whiff of him! You can probably smell the beer on him from a mile away!" His dad yelled, waking up a few cows in the little pasture o the right of the cars. "You know I could have you arrested for drunk driving right?"

That hadn't even occurred to Landry. All of a sudden, a river of nerves rushed through his whole body.

"Dad...you wouldn't actually do that, right."

His dad rolled his eyes.

"Don't know, son. I _could_ do that, I _should_ do that, but frankly, I don't want you sitting around like a bum for the next several years because you couldn't get a job, cause no one's going to hire a young kid with a DUI and criminal record!" Landry was oddly relieved. "That being said, you will owe me and your Papi every cent of what it costs to get our cars repaired. Now then, get in the passenger side! We'll go to the mechanic tomorrow and see what we can do about this, and the dent on your Papi's side door!" his dad said pointing at the destruction to both cars.

"But dad, what about Papi's car?"

"Your mother will drive it! Hell, if I'm letting you get behind the wheel of that thing again in your condition!" his dad walking to the driver's door.

"Can't I just go with Mom? Landry asked pointing to his Papi's car.

"Absolutely not! Now hand your mother the keys."

Landry tossed his mom the car keys then walked somberly over to passenger side, slumping in his seat.

"What has been up with you lately?!" his dad asked pulling back onto the road. "You've always been such a good kid and now, out of nowhere here you are sneaking around, lying to us, and getting a girl pregnant, I mean, come on son, what wrong?"

"I don't know dad. Everything is just spinning out of control."

"No, that was just you back at the intersection." his dad said laughing at his own joke.

"I guess, I have no reason." he said looking down shamefully.

His dad glanced over at him as he hit his foot on the brake pedal as they came to a red light. It occurred to Ripp, that maybe he had been a but too hard on his son. Maybe if he had been a bit more sympathetic and been there for him at a time like this he wouldn't push away from him and make his own stupid decisions.

"Landry," his dad began as the light changed back to green. "It may have occurred to me once or twice that maybe, as a father, I've been a tad hard on you."

This was a shock to Landry. He looked up and was actually interested in what his father might have to say. "Now, thats not to say that you didn't deserve any of it, cause you sure as Hell did, and I'll never know what you were thinking getting into that car drunk, but maybe bringing it up in every conversation wasn't the best way to handle things. It's just-" his dad paused for a second. "you had _so_ many amazing opportunities just waiting for you, and then, this happened and honestly, it breaks my heart to see you having to throw them all away." His dad said driving past the Hillside Community Center. "I mean, me, I was never very good at football. I barely even made the team my senior year, and the only schools interested in me were middle of nowhere schools in Kansas or Maryland or something. But you, _you_ have a gift that many, including myself, would love to have had. I'm just so sorry it all has to end here."

Landry was speechless. In all of his worrying about his own future and how this affected him and Laura, he never once thought about what it was doing to his parents.

"Dad? I know I've said it before but I really mean it when I say I'm so sorry. I don't think I've ever been so sorry in my life and I honestly mean that."

"Alright then." his dad said pulling up to his grandparents' house. Now then, lets go tell your Papi the news about the car. They got out, with Carlene following close behind them, walking up to confess to his Papi one of the many mistake's Landry had made in the past month.

**Author's Note:** **I honestly don't really have anything to say here but for some reason I feel weird not having some sort of comment at the end. Uh...hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I have a lot more written up but now that school has started and I have tons of English and creative writing assignments, I have very little time to edit :(. However, I will really try my best to have something up fairly quickly. As always I appreciate comments. Have a nice /morning/afternoon/night/whatever time it is where you are :D**


	16. Chapter 16: Dead Beat Dad

**Disclaimer: Nothing. I own nothing at all. **

"Landry?!" his Papi exclaimed standing there at the doorway as the three of them walked up the driveway to the front door. "Where in God's name were you?!" His Papi asked completely frazzled. "Oh my...did you get into an accident?!" he asked pointing at the dent in his car.

"Papi," Landry said as he got up to the front door in front of him. "I...uhh-"

"Landry got himself into a little fender-bender back on Reservoir Road." his dad interjected. Landry was surprised that his dad actually covered for him. "He was driving around, blasting his music too loud, not really paying attention to what he was doing, and accidentally hit _us_ when we went out to look for him."

His Papi shook his head.

"That darn road's always been a hazard! You know they really need to put in a stop light there." his Papi said, completely believing the story. Landry was grateful his clothes had dried so his dad's story could actually seem believable.

"Well, Landry could have also been a bit more careful but, what can you do?" His dad laughed nervously.

"Oh, and don't you worry," his mom added. "Landry knows he owes you every little bit of the damaging costs." she said patting her son's back as his dad pretended to look at his platinum watch on his right wrist.

"Well, this has been a great party, Jerry, but Landry's had a rough day, we should probably be heading out." His dad lied. "I'll be back tomorrow to take your car to the shop."

After saying good-bye the three got in the newly damaged Lexus and headed back home.

The next day, with nothing better to do now that his dad took his driving privileges away (not that it mattered since Landry still had no idea where his keys were) Landry decided to walk over to Laura's to see if she needed anything. Now that she was definitely having the child, Landry felt a strong desire to help her with whatever it was she needed. He didn't want to be known as one of those fathers who just abandons the mother and baby. Even if Laura decided on adoption, he wanted to be there for her, and not leave her to go through it on her own.

He rang the doorbell and was greeted with a less-than-enthused Laura, standing there with her arms crossed and her phone in her hand.

"What do _you_ want?!" she asked, clearly furious.

"I just wanted to make sure you were doing ok. I planned on coming by yesterday but-"

"But what?!" she interrupted. "You were too busy screwing Alexandra at Bozeman's pool party?!"

Landry's eyes widened.

"She told you?!" Landry asked almost as furious as she was. "Laura, you have to believe me! Alexandra came onto me, and Mckinney walked in on us, but I didn't do anything, I swear!"

"Do you know how stupid this makes me look?!" she snapped. "I mean, here it is, people already are finding out about the baby-"

"Yeah, and who's fault is that?!" Landry interrupted.

Laura ignored him and continued talking.

"As I was saying, they're already finding out about the baby and then when they hear that my baby-daddy has been sleeping around with other girls, I'm going to look like the biggest, pathetic, slut in Hillside!"

"But I didn't even cheat!"

"Even if that's true, Landry, _no one_ is going to believe that!" she explained to him.

"Then let them believe what they want! Who cares what some snobby, church-goers think about us?!" he asked her.

"I do!" she yelled at the top of her lungs. "People are already going to judge me for getting pregnant, I don't need them judging me about my loser, good-for-nothing boyfriend!"

Landry couldn't take it anymore. He was sick of being blamed for everything, no matter what the truth actually was.

"You know what, Laura?! Fine! Go ahead and believe whatever crap you want to! I don't freakin' care! But when you come to your senses and realize I did _nothing _wrong, don't expect me to just drop everything and forgive you!"

"I certainly won't! Go have fun screwing whoever the Hell you want!" she yelled, then slammed the door shut.

Landry ran back home, furious at Alexandra and Mckinney for doing this to him, and even more furious at Laura for actually thinking he would do something like that. Sure, he got a little aroused when Alexandra took off her cover-up, but he would never actually act on those feelings. He ran through the door and headed strait up to his room, locking himself up there for the rest of the day watching his _Family Guy_ DVD's.

**Author's Note: Hey guys! A bit shorter a chapter than usual but it's a good way transition. For my Australian readers (cause I noticed I have almost as many of you guys as I do US readers which is awesome by the way!) A friend of mine told me they started airing the show there. Have you guys seen the _Sex is Divine_ episode yet? That is the episode that inspired this story just in case you were curious (if you weren't curious then I guess you just learned a new piece of useless information ;p) as always comment! Especially if you have the answer to what episode you Aussies are on :)**


	17. Chapter 17: Knowing When it's Right

**Disclaimer: I don't own anything...but I sure wish I did (goes to google to figure out how to take over ABC...kidding...maybe...)**

In the days following, Landry's life consisted of sleeping, eating, watching whatever was on daytime TV. After having to shell out a whooping two-thousand dollars to repair both his father, and Papi's cars', Landry had no money for even bus fare to go to his friend's houses, and Laura hadn't bothered to get in touch with him since their argument. With nothing better to do, along with the pure desperation to get out of the house, Landry agreed to accompany his mother with her errands.

It was only nine in the morning when they pulled up to Armadillo Mart. Landry's mom liked to arrive early before the trashy riffraff made their way out of their trailer parks and into the store. The place was fairly empty with only a few carts and people scattered throughout the isles. While Carlene went to the pharmacy to buy condoms and spermicide for both Landry and herself, he began wandering around the isles attempting to entertain himself.

He grabbed a free piece of chocolate pound cake from the bakery and went over to the check-out to to look at the tabloids. On his way there, he ran into two familiar faces in the maternity area of the clothing section.

"Hello, Landry." Amanda said pushing the bright orange shopping cart filled with a pair of elastic waist jeans over to him. "So nice to see you here this early in the morning."

"Yeah, my mom likes to come here early to beat the crowds..." he responded sheepishly.

Landry and Laura locked eyes, their silence harsh and cold.

"Ok," Amanda announced. "I don't know what's going on with you two, and I frankly have too much going on to care, but if you two are going to raise a child together, you better start communicating."

There was no answer from either one of them.

"Oh there you are, Landry!" his mom called out as she pushed her way through a rack of maternity jeans on clearance. "Oh." she looked up. "Hi girls." she said stopping her cart in front of the three of them.

They all looked down at Carlene's cart containing three packs condoms, two things spermicide, four containers of The Morning After Pill and a tube of KY. Landry looked up completely embarrassed and at a loss of what to say, while his mother stood there as if the items was all totally normal.

"Yeah..." Amanda started up again slowly taking her eyes off the cart items. "As I was saying, you two need to talk, and by the way, Landry, you and your mother are welcome to come to Laura's doctors appointment today at one at the clinic if you'd like."

"Your having my grandchild be looked at at that dump?!" Carlene asked horrified. "That kid could have some horrible but preventable disease that none of us would know about until it's too late because _you_ decided to take Laura to a place where only crack babies are born!"

"Hey! I was born at a clinic!" Laura responded.

"And look where you are now sweetie, poor and pregnant at seventeen." Carlene said patting Laura's slowly forming baby bump. "Anyway, I _refuse_ to let your poverty affect that child's well-being. I'll get you an appointment with Dr. McMullan, the best around, even helped Cricket, Sharon and me with our kids." She whipped out her iPhone and began dialing the number.

While his mom was on the phone, and Amanda went to go look at the sale rack, leaving Laura and himself were left alone to work out their issues.

"Why didn't you tell me about the appointment?" Landry whispered, annoyed that once again, he was being left out of all the decisions about the child.

"Why would you care?!" she whispered back. " Aren't you too busy making love to every female in Texas?!"

"Dear God! Are you still on that?!"

"Are _you_ still sleeping with her?!"

"I never was!"

"Then whats all this for?!" she said picking up a pack of True Passion condoms and throwing them at his face. "You having an orgy?!"

"Of course not!" he said throwing them back into the cart. "They're my mom's!"

"Like mother, like son." Laura muttered even quieter.

Just then Carlene ran back to announce that she had gotten Laura and appointment with her OBGYN. She looked so proud and excited to be taking part in the pregnancy, almost like she was making up for the one she missed out on.

"Amanda, Amanda, get your outlet mall jean covered, ass over here!" she called to Laura's mom who was a few feet away, going through a rack of tie-dye maternity tank-tops.

Amanda came back, carrying a pale green t-shirt with bright pink flowers scattered about the front.

"Don't be ridiculous, those colors don't go together!" Carlene said then yanked the shirt out of her hands and placed it back on the nearest clothing rack. "I'll take you to Neiman's later sweetie." She told Laura. "As, I was saying, your's truly has just gotten your daughter an appointment with _the best_ OBGYN in Dallas in an hour." She looked up at Amanda. "You're welcome!"

Amanda rolled her eyes and the four of them continued on to check out, getting weird looks from the male, college-aged cashier as he scanned all of Landry's mom's personal items. Landry hid his face behind a magazine, pretending to read it, hoping the guy wouldn't notice him.

"Take that out of your face!" Carlene reprimanded yanking the magazine away from him and tossing it on the candy rack by their cart while Laura gave a loud, irritated sigh behind him in line.

As they loaded their bags into the trunk, Landry began wondering if this was really the girl he should be having a kid with. After all, they couldn't even get along for five minutes at Armadillo Mart. If she were to actually keep this kid, they would have eighteen years and beyond of holidays, birthdays, and other special occasions where they would have to get along for the sake of the child. He knew he was probably overreacting and just uneasy given that this was their first real fight, but even so, Landry couldn't help but wonder if this was what all teenage parents went through in the beginning of the pregnancy. If it wasn't, should he take this an early warning that the kid would be better off somewhere else, somewhere else without a dysfunctional family for him to constantly be forced to put up with?

"Hey, Mom?" Landry asked as he slid into the passenger side.

"What is it, sweetie?" she asked locking the door and turning on the engine.

"That guy that got you...pregnant?" He could see his mom looking uneasy about him bringing the subject up once again. "Before you...you know, did you ever worry that maybe that guy wasn't the best person to raise a child with?"

"Landry," his mom said shaking her head. "He was a drug addict!"

Landry waited a couple seconds before realizing his mom had no intention

of giving him a real answer.

"So...is that a yes?" he asked hoping to get even a small explanation. Something that would make what he was feeling seem normal.

"Landry, honestly, why do you even care?" she asked getting more irritated.

"Why wouldn't I care?!" he pointed out. "Mom, you and Ms. Vaughn are the only people I know who know what it's like to have a kid as a teen!"

"Then why don't you go bother her with your silly questions?!" She asked him. "I never _had_ a baby as a teen, I don't know what it's like!"

"But you must remember _something_." he argued as they came to a stoplight. "Come on, mom. Just give me _one_ answer. I've already screwed up my own life, I don't want to risk screwing up some innocent kid's just because I was in denial about how bad things are between us."

Carlene hit her foot on the gas pedal, took a deep breath, and decided now was as good a time as any to have a heart to heart with her son.

"I told Mark, the father, that I was pregnant two days after taking the test I bought at that 7-11 by the high school. I knew even before I told him that he had _no_ interest in helping me, and even less interest in being a father. When I finally found him under his friends deck shooting heroin with his buddies, he completely proved me right by saying it couldn't be his and calling me a whore, so I knew fairly early on I couldn't rely on him for a thing." she said looking straight ahead at the road. "And as for you and Laura, if you want my honest opinion, I think _neither of you_ are mature enough to handle a baby. She's too young and naïve, and you're far to stubborn and careless. Unless you both make a _huge_ turn-around in the next nine months, I think the baby would be better off adopted." she glanced over to see Landry slouching down in his seat. "Don't get me wrong, if you decide to keep it I would help you, and I'm willing to do whatever I can before it's born, but I'm not going to be one of those mothers who ends up raising raising the kid because you decide too late that you don't want to handle the responsibility. That's not fair to me, your father, or Amanda, _we_ weren't the ones who put you two in this position."

Landry nodded and decided to not question her anymore about the baby. He knew everything his mother said was fair, and probably true, he just didn't want it to be the reality, then again, _nothing_ he'd experienced recently was anything he ever wanted for his own reality. He spent the duration of the trip playing more Angry Birds, and watching pointless Youtube vloggers.

**Author's Note: Hey guys! Hope you're enjoyed this chapter. Like I said, with college Applications due soon my updates may be a little less frequent but I'm sure you guys will survive (even though I'm sure it will be oh so hard!) Happy reading! **


	18. Chapter 18: Landry Jordan Cockburn Jr

**Disclaimer: Nope I never did and probably never will own a single thing related to GCB other than a copy of the DVD that I haven't actually bought yet. Oh well, that's life! **

They walked into the office, with the Vaughns following close behind. The room was filled with woman in various stages of pregnancy, with their partners sitting beside them, rubbing their stomach's and beaming with over the fact that in only months, they would be blessed with a beautiful, and hopefully healthy, son or daughter. The four sat at the far end of the room with a small wooden table in front of them covered with birthing books and magazines with those same happy faces they were seeing in the waiting area plastered on every cover. Landry couldn't help but notice the looks and judgment he was getting from the other couples in the room. He glanced over at Laura to see if she was feeling as uneasy as he was, only to find her too engrossed in a baby name book to care.

"I like Bambi." she said turning to Landry, pointing at the name on the page. "It sounds so fun and happy, don't you think?"

He nodded, not wanting to ruin the moment for Laura by telling her the only thing their child would amount to with a name like that, would be a washed up stripper performing for married men in the midst of their mid-life crisis'.

"Or what about Lexi, or Chastity, or Trixie?!"

Landry wondered where on earth she came up with such names, all of which, to him, screamed cheap poll dancer.

"Ben's a nice name." Landry offered. "It's classic, dignified, and he won't have trouble spelling it when he gets to kindergarten." he joked. Laura ignored him and continued flipping through the pages of the book. "You know," Landry said trying to get her attention. "We _could_ just name him Landry Junior."

Laura looked up at him slamming the book shut.

"I am _not_ naming my child Landry Jr.!" she stated furiously.

"Aw come on," he said nudging her with his elbow. "I can picture it now, Landry Jordan Cockburn Jr., the next Republican nominee for president of the United States." he announced, beaming, picturing his son at the convention center, standing before a crowed of enthusiastic voters.

"Excuse me?" Laura said, clearly not as amused as he was. "Why the Hell does the baby have _your_ last name?!"

"Well," Landry tried to reason with her. "I mean, I _am_ the father."

"Yeah?!" Laura said throwing the book back onto the table. "Well _I'm_ the mother, and unless you're planning on putting a ring on my finger, which given your fun little fling last weekend, ain't gonna happen anytime soon, you have _no right_ to ask for your name to be put anywhere this kid's birth certificate!"

"Laura!" he mother tried to hush her.

By this point the whole room was staring at their argument. Landry could make out a few hushed conversations of couples stating that this is why babies shouldn't be having babies, and guessing how old they were. Landry was about to excuse himself to the bathroom until the commotion died down, but just then a nurse in pink butterfly scrubs called, Laura's name.

"Lets just get this over with." Laura sighed, then stood up with her mother and Carlene to walk back with the nurse.

"Couldn't agree more..." Landry said to himself, walking quickly to catch up with the rest of them, being watched by the other patients the whole way over.

**Author's Note: Hey guys! As promised I got this chapter up as soon as possible (actually, I'm not gonna lie, I got distracted catching up on Here Comes Honey Boo Boo when I tried to edit the other day, but you get the point) So, I promise to have the next one up soon as well...my mom's been making fun of me for watching that show anyway :\ **


	19. Chapter 19: Dr McMullan

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, nothing at all. Even my clothes were bought by my parents or with gift cards other people gave me, so theres no way I could afford a TV show (though I so desperately wish I did...)**

Dr. McMullan was different than Landry had expected. He had assumed that every OBGYN was a young, overly maternal female, but here stood Dr. Matthew McMullan, a fifty-something male, about six foot five, with movie star looks and larger muscles than a college quarterback, which he assumed was the reason his mom and all of her friends went to him.

"Hi there, Laura." he said reaching out to shake her hand. Landry could instantly see his girlfriend fall head over heels for this guy. "I'm Dr. McMullan, but you can call me Matt, if you'd like." Laura looked up at his dark blue eyes, completely consumed by him. Landry couldn't help but roll his eyes and quickly check his twitter alerts, until his mom slapped his hand and put his phone in her breast. "Now then," Dr. McMullan began, let's get you up on this bed take a look at you."

_"Why, so you can seduce her right in front of me?"_ Landry thought to himself.

"Alright sweetie," the doctor said grabbing her hand. "this is going to feel a little weird, but don't worry, I'll be right here."

"And so will I." Landry interjected, pushing the doctor out of the way and grabbing that same hand.

The doctor backed away and lifted up her yellow, polka-dot top to squeeze to goo onto her stomach. It sounded disgusting as he squeezed that last bit out of the bottle with his large, tan hands. Landry had seen this happening in the movie Juno, but he never actually thought he'd ever see this happen first hand, not until he was thirty anyway.

"Guess now I know how Pauly Bleaker feels." he commented, only to received an angry glare from Laura and confused looks from both moms. "You know...? Juno? Pauly Bleaker was the boyfriend?"

"_Right_..." Laura responded sarcastically. "Didn't Pauly also cheat on her and take some other girl to prom...?"

"You know, I don't remember the details exactly, Laura, but maybe you could come over and re-watch it sometime." He responded sharply.

"Juno?" his mom asked finally taking her eyes off Dr. McMullan. "Isn't that that porno flick I caught you and Bozeman watching that one time?"

"Yes, Mom, but unless you're in, like, Afghanistan or something, underwear is considered clothing, not porn."

"Modesty, Landry. Less is more."

"Yeah, thats why your skirt is hiked up your thighs and I can see halfway down your breasts." he said, pointing out his mom's rather revealing ensemble.

"Landry!" she said trying to pull her skirt down as much as she could.

"Can the three of you please shut up for ten minutes so Dr. McMullan can check the baby and show us the heartbeat, so we can all get the Hell out of here?!" Laura's mom asked.

They nodded and Dr. McMullan began gliding the transducer all along Laura's stomach. Landry could see blurred black and gray images appearing on the monitor, while listening to the weird growling noises Laura's stomach was making.

"Alrighty, here it is." Dr. McMullan announced, stopping the transducer right below her belly button.

"Wow." Landry said looking at the faint outline of what he assumed was his baby. "It's so...real."

"Yup," the doctor agreed. "Looks like you're about five weeks along, does that sound about right?" They both nodded thinking back to how long it must have been since prom. "Do you want to hear the heartbeat?" he asked looking at each of them.

"Yes, please." Laura responded, seeming somewhat phased by this whole experience.

Dr. McMullan pressed a couple buttons, zooming in on the heart that to Landry, looked like a little flapping bird wing. He turned on the sound and everyone could hear the smacking, rhythmic sound of sound of the heart. Both moms hugged each other tightly crying tears, of joy. It was a moment Landry wanted to remember forever. Even if only for this brief moment, no on was arguing, there were no discussions of rights and responsibilities, it was just their moms', his girlfriend, and their soon to be son or daughter.

**Author's Note: Hey guys! Sorry it's been so long since I last posted. A play I was in just finished so I've basically been living at the theatre for the past few weeks, leaving little time to finish even my school work, much less my Fanfiction. I hope to have the next chapter up soon but with Thanksgiving and college application deadlines fast approaching, I don't want to make any promises. Anyway, happy reading and hope to hear some more comments from you all!**


	20. I'm Back

**I'm Back **

Hello out there readers I may or may not have lost! It's been a while hasn't it? I really have had every intention to write the next chapter but then I got cast in a play, then another one, and another one, college things were due, senioritus kicked in, I somehow got nominated to take charge of our prom group, etc… Anyway the point of this schpiel is that after all this crazyness, I have finally decided to get my butt off of everything else I've been doing, and write another chapter. I realize the irony in the fact that this isn't actually a chapter. You see, that part's not finished being edited yet, but it will be! I thought I should just write this little thing letting you know I'm back in business, and now that 2/3 plays are finished I will officially have no excuses to not write! Thanks for being loyal (whoever you are out there…) and happy reading!


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